page_title: Kourion
section_title: House of the Gladiators
hierarchical_section_title: Kourion / Archaeological remains / House of the Gladiators
caption_attribution_description: English: Mosaic depicting a gladiators fight. The House of the Gladiators, Kourion, Cyprus. Deutsch: Bodenmosaik im Gladiatorenhaus. Kourion/ Zypern.
context_page_description: Kourion or Latin: Curium, was an important ancient city-state on the southwestern coast of Cyprus. In the twelfth century BCE, after the collapse of the Mycenaean palaces, Greek settlers from Argos arrived on this site.
  In the seventeenth century, Kourion suffered from five heavy earthquakes, but the city was partly rebuilt. The acropolis of Kourion, located 1.3 km southwest of Episkopi and 13 km west of Limassol, is located atop a limestone promontory nearly 100 metres high along the coast of Episkopi Bay.
  The Kourion archaeological area lies within the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia and is managed by the Cyprus Department of Antiquity.
context_section_description: The so-called House of the Gladiators is located south and east of the House of Achilles. The structure dates to the late-3rd century AD and has been interpreted as an elite-private residence, or perhaps more probably as a public palaestra. The later interpretation is supported by the absence of many rooms appropriate for living spaces and that the structure was entered from the east through the attached bath complex. The main wing of the structure is arranged around a central peristyle courtyard. The northern and eastern portico of the atrium contains two panels depicting gladiators in combat, the only such mosaics in Cyprus. The structure was extensively damaged in the earthquakes of the late-4th century, but the east rooms seem to have been used until the mid-7th century.
caption: mosaic of gladiators being separated by a referee, late-3rd century CE, House of the Gladiators
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